Container with cap and item compartment

ABSTRACT

A product container having a removable cap for removably closing the container, and having: an item compartment integrally formed with the cap, an opening for the compartment, and, a closure integrally formed with the compartment for closing the compartment, the closure being releasable to remove the item

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The Invention relates to a container having a cap provided with acompartment for storing a promotional/novelty item or the like.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

At various sporting events, and other public events, and other venuesand retail locations, products, for example products such as foods orbeverages are provided to the customers and spectators. In many suchcases, these consumers may wish to be provided with apromotional/novelty item or a memento of the event. In many cases suchan item may for example be a pennant, or a picture of a participant orsome article such as a badge, or a wet wipe, or compressed towel, thesebeing merely a few typical examples of such items ,promotional/novelties or mementos, referred to collectively herein as“items”.

It is considered desirable to provide a product container such as abeverage container, food product or the like, which incorporates acompartment for carrying such a item. In this way, when the consumerbuys a product the item can be withdrawn from the compartment and eitherused as part of the customer activity at the event or can be retained asa memento.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

With a view to providing an article which achieves these variousobjectives, the invention provides a product container, a removable capfor removably closing the container, an item compartment integrallyformed with the cap, an opening for said compartment, and a closureintegrally formed with the compartment for closing the compartment, theclosure being releasable to remove the item.

Preferably the invention provides such a product container in which thecap is formed of thermo plastic material, and in which the productcontainer cap and item compartment portion are moulded integrally with aclosure for the item compartment, all being integrally moulded in onepiece.

The product container may be a bottle, and the cap may be a screw on capwhich screws onto the top of the bottle.

Preferably the exterior item compartment located on the cap outside thecontainer. Alternately the container will have a cap, and having a tubeforming central axial recess formed integrally in the cap, functioningas the item compartment, in such a way that the item compartment isstored inside the container, until the cap is removed.

The various features of item which characterize the invention arepointed out with more particularity in the claims annexed to and forminga part of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention,its operating advantages and specific objects attained by its use,reference should be made to the accompanying drawings and descriptivematter in which there are illustrated and described preferredembodiments of the invention.

IN THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective illustration of a container with a cap,incorporating an integral item compartment and closure, and showing aproduct container partially cut away;

FIG. 2 is a section along the line of 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a perspective illustration of an alternate form of cap, inwhich the item compartment is formed as an integral recess extendinginto the cap, and being normally retained within the container until itis opened to consume the contents; and,

FIG. 4 is a section along 4-4 of FIG. 3.

DESCRIPTION OF A SPECIFIC EMBODIMENT

As already explained above, the invention relates generally to a productcontainer which incorporates a cap and a compartment in the cap forstoring an item item. The compartment can in fact be relatively smallsince the typical item will be given away free.

As will appear from the following description, the compartment for theitem is incorporated in the preferred embodiment as an integral onepiece moulded construction, integral with the cap or product closureitself. In one case the item compartment can be located outside theproduct container as it were on top of the cap and in an alternate case,the item compartment may be located recessed in wardly into the cap sothat when the cap is in position on the product container, the itemcompartment extends down into the product container.

Referring first of all to FIGS. 1 and 2, it will be seen that theinvention is shown there for illustrative purposes only, in the form ofa product container (10), in this case a typical bottle, and a productcontainer cap (12). The container (10) in this case is provided with athreaded neck (14) and the product container cap (12) is provided withinterior threads (16). In this way the cap can be screwed onto the neckto provide a secure closure and seal. If necessary a sealing ring (notshown) may be provided within the cap for security against leakage. Thebottle can contain any sort of beverage such as a soft drink, or indeedan alcoholic beverage such as beer, or even simply water.

The bottle is shown simply be y way of illustration and example. A widevariety of containers may be provide with caps having these features.

In this embodiment the cap (12) for the product container has a toppanel (18). The item compartment comprises in this particular example, acylindrical wall (20) extending up from the panel (18). The cylindricalwall (20) defines an open top (22).

A closure (24) is connected integrally with a self hinge (26) to thecylindrical wall (20). The closure (24) has a fastening tag (28) , whichmay simply be adhesively bonded or make frictional engagement with thecylindrical wall (20) in known manner.

An item is shown generally as N. In phantom, nested in the cylindricalwall (20) of the item compartment.

Another embodiment is shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. In this embodiment thecontainer (10) is provided with a neck, and a cap (40). The cap (40) hasa top ring (42). The top ring (42) is formed with a central axial recesscompartment (44). The recess (44) is in the form of an integral sleeveor tube, which is formed integral with ring (42) and is closed at itslower or inner end as at (46). A hinged lid (48) is integrally connectedto the top panel by a self hinge formed integrally of plastic, shown as(50).

An item (N) is shown in phantom within the sleeve or tube.

In use in this embodiment, the sleeve or tube will extend down into theinterior of the container (10) and may in fact displace some of thecontents.

It will of course be appreciated that various forms of containers andvarious forms of closures may be employed with the invention. Thecontainer can be made of plastic, glass or the like. The top can beprovided with threads or any other form of attachment such as a simplering. The closure can be a crown closure, which may either snap off orbe screwed off, or maybe any other form of closure.

The reference in the present application to threads and a bottle with aneck is therefore without limitation and purely for the sake ofillustrating the invention.

The foregoing is a description of a preferred embodiment of theinvention which is given here by way of example only. The invention isnot to be taken as limited to any of the specific features as described,but comprehends all such variations thereof as come within the scope ofthe appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A product container having a removable cap forremovably closing the product container, and comprising ; an itemcompartment integrally formed with the cap; an opening for said itemcompartment, and, a closure integrally formed with the compartment forclosing the item compartment, the closure being releasable to remove theitem.
 2. A product container as claimed in claim 1 in which: the cap isformed of thermo plastic material, and is moulded integrally with aproduct container cap and an item compartment portion, and a closure forthe item compartment, all being integrally moulded in one piece.
 3. Aproduct container as claimed in claim 2 in which the container is abottle, and the cap is a screw on cap which screws onto the top of thebottle.
 4. A product container as claimed in claim 3 in which thebottle: will incorporate such a cap, which is screwed on to the bottleand has an exterior item compartment located on the cap outside thebottle.
 5. A product container as claimed in claim 2 in which the bottlehas a cap, attachable to the bottle, and a central axial recess formedintegrally in the cap, functioning as the item compartment, in such away that the item compartment is stored inside the bottle, until the capis removed.